The rest stop where we stayed the night was more populated with campers and vehicles in the morning. This was proof that we aren’t the only ones that appreciate free camping!

Fueled by oatmeal, we set off to chase the rays that appeared to descend from heaven through the clouds.

It wasn’t long before we were stopped again. A nail had gone right through Gerald’s back tire.

The tire repaired, we pedalled on.

The sky was overcast most of the day, but it wasn’t until fat rain drops started to fall that we thought of getting out our rain gear.

We scrambled to cover our bags and don our jackets. Of course, it seemed that as soon as we were fully prepared, the rain blew over. The rest of the day the rain came and went, but our rain protection remained on.

About 6km from Gull Lake, the pressure in Gerald’s back tire went down. He cycled slow to a restaurant in the town, avoiding a complete flat, but walked his bike from the restaurant to the campsite. Much of the evening meal was spent figuring out how to get a new tire. With plans in place, we’re going to bed in a campground in the community of Gull Lake. All I will say about that for now, is that Amelia is looking forward to sleeping in a bit more tomorrow.

Damp and (slightly) discouraged,

Gerald and Amelia

We left our campsite in Bow Island just before 8am Tuesday morning and paid our respects to the town mascot as we departed. The morning was uneventful expect for some uprooted flowers.

Just 5km from Dunmore Gerald got another flat. While Amelia learned how to patch a tube, Gerald discovered his tire was still too tight to put on the rim without puncturing the tube. Thus, Amelia set off ahead and Gerald continued the journey on foot.

We were reunited at a Co-op in Dunmore. From there, Gerald took a taxi to a bike store in Medicine Hat to get a new tire and some more spare tubes. The tire repaired, we continued on our way.

Having lost at least two hours of potential riding time due to the tire escapade, we only arrived at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border around 7:30pm. Hungry and tired, after riding over 100kms, we decided this rest stop would act as both our supper site and our sleeping quarters for the night.

The only concern we had with our night lodging decision, was that the rest stop had no water access. We had two partially filled water bottles between the two of us, but we would need water to make our food and that didn’t leave a lot left over for drinking, or cleaning. As we sat at a picnic table considering our dwindling water supply, a man walked up and asked if we wanted all the water bottles his family no longer needed, since they were heading home. We gratefully said yes. God sees our every need!

The sprinkling of water was inconsistent as the sun rose over our polyester dwelling. The rain that had put us to bed was now waking us up. Although now it was coming in waves, and from the ground?! No, it was the sprinkler system that we thought we’d avoided by pitching our tent on the gravel patch as instructed.

With a wet tent in tow, we backtracked 4km to get a decent breakfast at Tim’s. We left Coaldale with the wind at our backs and an optimistic outlook about our end destination.

Around 35kms from Taber Gerald’s front tire got a puncture. We parked ourselves at an intersection and Gerald pulled out his supply of spare tubes. His new tire was very tight and the sensitive tubes didn’t seem to appreciate being prodded by the tire lever. Three tubes later, we were calling CAA. While Gerald was on the phone, a kind woman named Lena pulled up in her truck and asked if we needed help. Just minutes later another truck also stopped. The driver, a gentleman named Joe, offered to help Gerald with the tire. The kindness of these strangers helped us on our way and made our day. It also saved us from paying $300 to CAA to tow us to the nearest bike shop in Medicine Hat, because after the first 5km you have to pay.

Oranges and water breaks helped us make it to Bow Island over the next 2.5 hours. We ended the day with Chinese food and after 99.4km, we found a camp ground with a reasonable rate for a tenting site and FREE showers!

The Buffalo, Jump to the Point ride has begun! No cliffs were plummeted, nor buffalo seen, but we successfully pushed off on our loaded bikes from Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump before 11am on August 4th.

A bike trip involves a lot of packing and organization. For some reason a lot of the packing and organizing for this trip was still taking place on this first day.

Gerald seemed to have everything he needed, and yet no idea where anything was. There was a missing toothbrush, lost plastic bags, and then hidden soap.

The former was found only after the acquisition of a flimsy handled toothbrush from the hotel. The discovery of the latter was exclaimed to half the campground because Amelia was already half way to the showers, “Amelia, I found the soap!”

After cycling a total of 91kms, we are staying the night at the edge of Coaldale. This campground has no tent only sites, so we were made to pay $43 for a site with a power hook up that we can’t even use. Additionally, the underground sprinkler system for the grass is apparently more important than our sanity, because we were requested to pitch our tent (and put our pegs!) in the gravel. Gerald was able to borrow a hammer so our tent won’t be flying away. At least we have access to clean washrooms and can shower at a cost of only $1 for 5 minutes.

Now that Gerald has found his comb (the latest victim of the “I have it, but I don’t know where it is” statement), we can sleep with clean, well groomed hair on our very expensive patch of gravel.

Gerald and Daughter #1 (Amelia)

This will be the final post for the Vancouver Island bicycle trip.

First, have some fun with the before and after of the trip. See how many differences you can see from when we left Winnipeg and when we left BC.

This has been the 4th year I have done a fundraiser bike ride for MCC. If you wish to donate go to: https://donate.mcccanada.ca/registry/vancouver-Island-tip-tip

I will keep dreaming of future rides as long as my body allows me. Next year the dream is to cycle from head smashed in Buffalo jump in Alberta to Buffalo Point in Manitoba. It could be called, “Jump to the Point.”.

We met our goal of cycling Vancouver Island from tip to tip. We now needed to get to our van parked in Royston. First part of the trip had us taking a bus (large van) and our bikes back to Campbell River.

Arriving at Campbell River by lunch time we stopped at Tim’s to eat. From here we would need to cycle 60 km’s to the van. This is as far as we could take the bikes on the bus. It was raining the entire time we cycled.

We were soaked once we got to the home of Alex and Kathy where the van was parked. We never met them before and they hosted us like we were old friends. Took a shower, fed us some food before we went on a two hour drive to George and Verna’s place to spend the night, and had another supper.

Today is our last day of cycling to reach our goal of Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island. Day started with breakfast served and made by Duchess. She gave us a complimentary breakfast of 12 bannock, two having eggs inside. She is a very sweet, generous, funny and caring woman.

Took the 9:30 AM ferry back to Vancouver Island. Cycled 50 km’s before arriving at Port Hardy to finish our trip. In total our cycling journey was 843 km’s.

It was only after the 3rd Hotel that we found a room in Port Hardy. Our options were running out and sleeping somewhere outdoors was not going to go over well with the Mrs. We are happy to be relaxing in a room with a great view of the water.

Tomorrow we take the bus part way back and need to cycle about 60 km’s to get to our van. Of course rain is in the forecast.

Visiting Cormorant island (Aug 6th) where the town of Alert Bay is located, was an ideal place for a day off. They were holding a kayak 360 event around the island. Top finishers do it under an hour. There are around 120 participants. Here are a few pictures.

There are also some nice hiking trails on the island. We took the afternoon to enjoy a nice long walk.

In the evening we joined the T’Sasala cultural group for a celebration of food, dance, and education of their culture. It was held it what they call the ‘Big house‘. They had an open fire in the middle that was burning the entire evening. Supper consisted of smoked salmon, salads, seaweed and bannock. After the meal they performed some cultural dances. Here is a picture of the inside.

Completed another 75 km’s of cycling today. We were just in time to catch the ferry to Cormorant Island, if not we would have needed to wait 3 hours for the next ferry.

Arriving on the Island by 3 gave us time to get a camping spot, have supper and get groceries.

We plan to take Sunday August 6th off to enjoy the island. There is a 360 kayak Regatta on Sunday. They kayak around Cormorant Island, it is 8 miles around. It is a huge deal with many people here with kayaks. We will see what this all about tomorrow.

We look forward to another day off from our vacation.

On Aug. 3rd in the evening as we we’re enjoying supper. We noticed two men talking to a park employee about getting a campsite. This happened right in front of our campsite and knew there were no sites available. We felt the right thing to do was to invite them to share our site as the park employee was not helping. It was interesting hearing the story of the two from Germany who had walked from town as they missed the bus to Port Hardy. They have plans to hike the northern island. They only arrived from Germany the day before.

August 4th started with cycling at 7:15 AM and ended at 8:30 PM. Over 13 hours with breaks in between. Some hills were over 10 km’s long, made an exhausting day. It felt so good to complete our cycling goal for the day.

The road was not as isolated as expected. There was a gas station I did not know about, 60 km’s in. Rest spots where you meet people who give you cold water.

Day finished at a rest stop a few km’s east of Woss.